Well, hello! I think I’m back, I hope there are still a few readers left out there!

I thought I’d return with a quick app recommendation. The last few months I’ve spent quite a lot of time sitting on my porch. I wasn’t feeling too well earlier this year, and then I had a minor surgery to fix the problem (it’s all very boring and frankly, TMI for the Internet), and so then I spent my recovery time sitting and reading or knitting and watching all the birds in our yard. I started noticing a lot of different birds that I hadn’t seen before, and wished I had an easy way to identify them.

The Cornell Lab of Orinthology is such a great source for all things bird-related, and it turns out they just released a Bird ID app called Merlin. You just answer a few questions, and it returns a list of possibilities that includes multiple photos of each bird as well as recordings of their songs. So now I can sit on my porch, see a bird, open the app and find out just what it is in seconds.

Earlier this spring I found a beautiful, but sadly dead, little bird in the chicken pen. I had never seen anything like it before. Using the app, I’ve now learned that it’s a male Bullock’s Oriole, and that it was probably in the area for breeding season.

By identifying the birds that you see, information is added to the lab’s database. The app doesn’t save the birds you find, which I found unfortunate, but you can send comments to the developers, and when I sent a message requesting the ability to do just that they were quick to reply that they have many such improvements planned for the near future.

I never thought of myself as a bird watcher, but I may have started researching binoculars for viewing birds.

Some related links:

A fun movie (based on a true story) about birdwatchers. I never knew this was a thing!

Like this:

There’s an exciting new development in the Hey Lucy household. Mr. Heylucy is the proud owner of an iPad Mini. It was an anniversary-birthday-Christmas present. I have been ignoring it, because I didn’t think I really had any need to use it, but he is very generous and keeps downloading apps he thinks I might like, and is very happy to share it with me. So I’ll start including the occasional iPad app review, along with my usual iPhone app reviews. I knew there were lots of iPad-specific apps, of course, but we’ve discovered some really beautiful ones that would never work on a little iPhone screen, so I’m really excited to start sharing them here!

My current favorite is called Paper, which you’ve probably heard of if you have an iPad, since it was just named App of the Year. I like it so much that I’m going to write about it anyway. I have a few drawing apps on my phone, but I never use them. They are really powerful and have tons of capabilities, and I’m sure they’re really great, but I find them just too intimidating for my non-artist self. So I had my doubts the first time I opened up Paper. I didn’t buy any of the extra tools at first, the free version comes with just a pen tool, but I starting just making swirls and lines on the page and knew that I had to have all the tools. There’s something about the way the app works that makes all my doodling look good.

Paper is beautifully designed, and opens with an assortment of Moleskine-like notebooks, which you can name and customize as you like. I had fun making covers using Phonto and Poolga wallpapers. You can re-order the notebooks, and add and remove pages, or move pages from one book to another.

The drawing interface is very simple and intuitive. Choose your tool and just start creating. The color palette is also very easy to use. There are several pre-set color palettes, and you can adjust the color in the large mixing palette to anything you’d like, and then move those colors over to your own palettes. You also have the ability to blend colors, which makes it easy to make the colors in your work of art all cohesive.

There’s an eraser tool, but you can also undo your work by making a circle gesture with two fingers and “rewind” your last strokes (up to 20, I believe). I’m still no artist, but Paper is so easy to use that I am drawing more. Here’s an evening’s worth of sketches:

I’m still doing lots of experimenting, but it’s so satisfying to watch my little notebooks fill up with color and lines. There are so many uses for this app, not just drawing, but note-taking, journaling and creating idea repositories.

The creators of Paper have a tumblr blog, showcasing art created with the app.

Like this:

At any given time I have hundreds of photos on my phone. It seems a shame to just leave them there, but it always seems like so much work to do anything else. Well, actually, it’s not really. There are several really easy ways to transform those memories and little works of art from electronic media to real life photos, which are much more fun to look at and share, and there are tons of fun ways to display your photos once you get them in your hot little hands.

First up is PostalPix, a free iPhone app (and coming soon for Android!) that makes ordering photo prints right from your phone really easy and inexpensive. The service is also really fast, shipping is reasonable, and you can even use PayPal to pay for your prints. The last order I placed got to me in just a few days. They offer a nice variety of sizes, including square prints (4×4, 5×5, and 8×8!), which means they can print Instagram and Hipstamatic photos, no problem. They also print standard sizes up to 8×10. I’ve ordered from them a couple times now, and I’ve been very pleased with the quality. The paper is nice and sturdy, with a matte finish. I’ve even downloaded some of my Nikon photos to my phone from my flickr account, and had those printed and they came out absolutely crisp and clear, and were nice enough to frame!

Here’s what I did with some of my Instagram prints from Postal Pix:

I’ve heard of encaustic painting before, but reading this post inspired me to give it a try with some of my photos. I ordered some 5″ x 5″ boards from Dick Blick, and I had some beeswax, so that’s what i used. I definitely need to practice my technique, I messed up a couple prints because I think my iron was too hot and I probably held it in place for too long. Still, I had plenty of successes too. I like the warmth and texture that the beeswax added.

PostalPix also offers aluminum prints, which are so nice. They are a bit pricier, but I ordered this 4×4 print of a photo I took while in Africa, and I love the way it looks. It’s nice and sturdy and seems to be scratch-resistant. The finish is smooth and slightly glossy. I like that it’s something different, and doesn’t need framing. I made a quick little stand for it with a chunk of wood from the yard. I sanded it a bit and then just pounded in a few nails-two in front and one in back. I have a scrap wood/stick thing going on, as you’ll see throughout this post.

Another free iPhone (and Android) app is Postagram. With Postagram you can order postcards, and have them sent anywhere in the world. What’s nice about Postagram is that you can choose not only photos from your camera roll, but also photos directly from Instagram and Facebook.

Postagram postcards are also nice, heavy cardstock, with a glossy finish. You are limited to only square photos (which you scale and crop as you place your order, if they are not already square), but the photo itself can actually be popped out of the postcard for display. You also have the ability to add a personalized message and your own little avatar. For just 99 cents, it’s a nice way to send a greeting to a friend, with the bonus of a nice photo they can save and display.

Postagram is powered by Sincerely, which is also behind the lovely Cartolina Postale app I talked about earlier this year, and several other printing apps that look fun, like Popbooth. You can also buy credits and add contacts to your address book online, to make checking out from your phone even quicker and easier.

Printstagram lacks the convenience a standalone app, but it makes up for it with the variety of products. To order from Printstagram, you’ll need to go to their website and connect to your Instagram account. Then you can choose from a variety of products, from square prints-in two sizes, to stickers, mini books, posters and more. I ordered a set of the mini prints, and chose all my Africa Instagram pictures, plus a few others. They are business card-sized, and extra thick and sturdy. They came nicely packaged in a little brown box, but at the time they took quite a long while to get here, it was a good three weeks or so, and I’m not sure that they are shipping faster yet. While the company is based in California, their products are actually printed and shipped from Hong Kong. You also don’t have the option to order just a print or two, you have to order in the quantities they specify. Still, the quality is good and their products are unique, so if you’re not in a big rush, they are worth the wait.

I’m using most of my little prints in a scrapbook, but I wanted to display a few around the house as well. I found some more bits of wood and a few bulldog clips. I had some fun with paint and finishing wax, and used someCommand Picture Hanging Strips for hanging (I only recently discovered these handy little things, I love them!).

Do you need a little more iphoneography inspiration? I thought this was nice:

Like this:

I never even turned on my computer yesterday. I was so scattered, and I kept meaning to get to it and then I just never did. Do you have days like that? I did a lot of things, but in the end I didn't feel like I really accomplished much at all. I'm going to try and do better today, so first thing I'm doing is getting on my computer and writing this post, which will probably be random and scattered like my day was.

The acorns on the California oaks around here are long and skinny. I have an app called FingerFace and now I think I will put little faces on everything.

I shared the above photo on Instagram the other day. I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I've limited my Twitter use to blog posts and Instagram these days, I feel like tweeting is like walking into a big party and just shouting out something witty and hoping someone hears (and then RTs it). I don't really love big parties. I think I will stick to Instagram for now, I like looking at everyone's pretty pictures and it's making me be more creative with photography.

I didn't mention in my book post that I listened to the Song of Ice and Fire series audiobooks recently as well. I came across this Tumblr blog and this re-imagined cover for A Game of Thrones made me laugh really hard.

Have you seen this? Works of art, re-made. Some are literal, like this beautiful painting and photograph:

And some are more interpretive. I especially liked this one (the pillow case tacked to the wall is an especially nice touch):

I've been making a lot of soup lately, albondigas, this hot & sour cabbage soup, sausage and kale soup. I tried this green soup, but it came out kind of thin and watery, with not a lot of flavor. I need to expand my soup repertoire, does anyone have a favorite recipe to share? Preferably without grains or beans. Lots of vegetables are welcome, and I am not afraid to make my own broth. When I'm ready for a break from soup I think I'll try this artichoke, kale & ricotta pie, it looks so good.